When and how slow motion makes products more luxurious | Hacker News Reader

When and how slow motion makes products more luxurious

journals.sagepub.com

70 pointsmalshe28 comments

From the abstract -

Across 12 experiments (total N = 27,227, five preregistered), we demonstrate that when a video ad depicts a product in slow motion (vs. regular speed), consumers perceive the featured product or brand as more luxurious. The effect emerges across various product categories (chocolate, shampoo, mineral water, wine) and in different countries (United States, United Kingdom, France). Tests of mediation and moderation suggest that the effect occurs because viewing a slow-motion ad increases feelings of immersion, which in turn lead consumers to expect greater hedonic value from the featured product and thus view it as more luxurious. Consistent with this account, the effect weakens when video blurriness or buffering impairs the immersive viewing experience afforded by slow motion, and the effect attenuates among consumers very weakly or very strongly predisposed to experience immersion. Finally, by enhancing perceptions of luxuriousness, slow motion subsequently boosts consumers’ desire for the featured product or brand (as manifested by higher willingness-to-pay, purchase intentions, and ad click rates), particularly when the goal to consume luxury is salient (vs. not).

> a slow-motion ad increases feelings of immersion

A good example being the 1992 Cadbury's Flake advert.

So much codified in this advert, I dont know where to begin! Its certainly not Northern and Shell Ltd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AATTN5p30A&ab_channel=Histo...

Edit. Looks like the subliminal UK electioneering is underway on Youtube, after watching the above advert, the link below is the next suggestion and its an Anti UK Labour political party advert.

So Google & Youtube are also engaged in rigging elections of foreign countries besides Facebook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be_IeW6sRcw&ab_channel=TheRe...

> Edit. Looks like the subliminal UK electioneering is underway on Youtube, after watching the above advert, the link below is the next suggestion and its an Anti UK Labour political party advert.

> So Google & Youtube are also engaged in rigging elections of foreign countries besides Facebook.

I didn't get anything of the sort. If it is the second link you posted it just takes me to another old chocolate flakes ad..

Not sure that is an apt usage of subliminal either. Seems very.. liminal. The ads are personalized to you. I guess based on your viewing history you are a dirty tory. Actually on second thought based on your tone probably the other way around. Maybe the dirty tories are targeting people like you (limingly!) as swing voters.

Rejoice in their wasted ad spend?

Hmm. Let me try it in slow-mo in keeping with the actual contents of the OP.

Rejo-ice in their waaaaaaaasted adddd speeeeend Goooo Toouuuuchhhh Grassssss

> I didn't get anything of the sort. If it is the second link you posted it just takes me to another old chocolate flakes ad..

The anti Labour Party imagery at the start of the 2nd link and shown before the next advert.

Perhaps Google/Youtube doesnt class you as a Labour voter so you didnt get the 2nd link?

I am in fact not a Labour voter nor a tory voter for I... am.. not from the UK or very political for that matter.

But just for you I took a second look and in the first few frames, blink and you miss it, it says "only the crumbliest, flakiest government... Labour - Tastes like nothing ever tasted before".

Evidently some sort of meme, it is literally part of the uploaded video file, which you can confirm by downloading it with something like ytb-dlp. Nothing to do with google or subliminal messaging about current elections, your issue, well, one of your issues for you appear to have a few, is with user TheRedRag dicking about 13 years ago.

I don't get the meme to be honest but it seems to be very effective judging by your conniption. When you eat cadbury chocolate try to not consume the aluminium wrapper. :)

> blink and you miss it,

How slow do you blink, let me know when you are out and about like driving, I can head for safety then!

> Nothing to do with google or subliminal messaging about current elections,

We have an election coming up so this is a way for Youtube to start influencing the public. I saw this with Jeremy Corbyn before he won the Labour Party leadership, the Google Trends was projecting Jeremy Corbyn to be the next leader and with all the other social media like on Reddit, sure enough JC one. Using data projections, including AI to influence decisions is a subtle way to influence people's judgement.

Based on my own experience, I could safely say the US tech giants were manipulating political events in other country's as I doubt I was alone, and are using AI to provide the cover which enables them to avoid taking responsibility for their actions! ROFL

I've been exposed to election rigging since before George Bush Jr got in, and I'll even accuse the BBC of being involved in US election rigging as well, because I can usually choose the next US president from a year out just from watching BBC news!

Now I want an experiment regarding how slow is too slow?

For example, can we get a 30 second, 600FPS video of milk lusciously pouring onto some Frosted Flakes to see how people react?

Rarely do I shoot things at "normal" frame rates. I find things much more interesting at different frame rates. Shooting 60fps for 24fps playback is just slow enough to give it the look discussed without going extreme high frame rates. I don't have anything that shoots higher than 120fps, but going into those extremely high rates is just surreal.

Going the opposite direction, I love time lapse as well. Seeing things that seem perceptually static move in playback can reveal a lot of interesting things that happen at rates too slow for our hectic hustle and bustle life styles to appreciate.

Seeing something in slow motion is seeing something more clearly. You have time to observe it better, to understand it better. You feel like you get something more out of it, and thus it is more valuable to you and to the advertisers.

The YouTuber Tom Scott did a video shot in the style of a music video that was really interesting, and one of the things that surprised me was how little of the video was shot using the "right" frame right - for example, they shot dancers at a slightly slower frame rate then speed the footage up to make them look more in sync, or slowed other shots down to make them feel more dreamy. But only fairly subtly, so that you don't necessarily notice it if you're not looking for it.

There's definitely something fascinating about playing with playback speeds.

Some one in a commentary track for some movie (I know really specific here, but the brain is fuzzy on the details) used a phrase that has always stuck with me when talking about their use of off speed frame rates. They used the term "imperceptible slow motion". It's not slo-mo for slo-mo sake, but just enough to give it that slight not normal feel.

The director of the Shield would switch from normal 24fps to 30fps in camera to playback at 30fps. So it wasn't slow motion, but the switch in frame rate gave it just enough of a difference to get the viewer to feel it. So there's a lot of things that can be done that are perceptible subconsciously without making it a slap in the face type of effect.

Wouldn't it be the opposite to get slow mo? shoot in 30 but playback at 24?

Wow, fascinating! I was wondering what they did with voice pitch and turns out they recorded at normal speed and then lip sync at a different speed to match the camera speed.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G025oxyWv0E

>viewing a slow-motion ad increases feelings of immersion, which in turn lead consumers to expect greater hedonic value from the featured product and thus view it as more luxurious.

Not limited to ads. Number of products deliberately slow down some functions/aspects objectively worsening functionality, but the effect increases perceived value.

- Tape Decks used to open tape drawers veeery slowly, the slower the "better".

- adding mass to objects even when their main purpose depends on users moving them.

I forgot about that with tape decks. It’s been 27 years probably and as soon as you say it I feel it again. It was so luxurious and tactile. Like a spaceship version of that physical aspect people love of vinyl

  > - adding mass to objects even when their main purpose depends on users moving them.

I prefer a heavier mouse to a flyaway one. For me it is not "objectively worse", it is subjectively better!

Flimsy, lightweight electronics are a scourge.

I have cracked open my computer mice and have glued pennies inside to add weight.

Beats does that to their headphones. (Not literal pennies).

Remote controls for TV and other electronics.

> adding mass to objects even when their main purpose depends on users moving them.

I read somewhere that automakers spend a lot of time designing their car doors for the sound and feel when you shut them. Consumers perceive a door that feels heavy and substantial as a luxury product. Sorry, don't have a reference for this factoid.

Mechanical pencils needs some weight so you aren't pushing it down too much.

> adding mass to objects even when their main purpose depends on users moving them

I used to work for a music electronics company who added metal plates to the products for no reason other than making the products heavier so that the users feel like they’re getting their money’s worth.

Car glove boxes and cupholders etc. often have damping as well. You literally need to wait for it to open, but gives more of a "luxury feel". Also, soft close doors.

EDIT: maybe it's something to do with the motion being more "under control".

I'd say "unsurprising" rather than "under control", but yeah, I think that's a big part of it. If it's slow, you have time to see and anticipate what's going on, even if you don't control it. It's the same with humans, really -- you feel better and safer around someone that has calm and slow movements than around someone that nervously jerks around all the time.

Perhaps it also has something to do with fat and viscosity being associated with luxury? I’m thinking of a luscious butter sauce or a rich chocolate cake. It’s food that is both thick in texture and therefore moves slowly, but also tends to be eaten slowly.

Just this week I added shimmer loading effects to a mobile application, and after playing around with some of the configuration decided to have the shimmer go fairly slow (~2 seconds to cross whole screen width).

I am not sure if it would be the same underlying cause, but it just felt better than any of the faster speeds I tried.

If that is an animation that plays often, you might want to consider a trade-off between how good it feels the first time you play it and the 100th time you play it.

This may not apply to your situation but I'd wager the time lost to slow animations that "just feel better" in mobile apps is huge.

I understand what you mean. However this is a pure loading animation, which halts as soon as data loading ends.

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